Product Description

This Cicerone guide book is ideal for the beginner or those looking for a little adventure. Over 100 routes are described in this guidebook to walking the Bernese Alps in Switzerland, home to the famous Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau. Routes for all abilities lead to lesser-known mountains, romantic valleys, lakes, flower-filled meadows and mountain huts. Describes the area from the Haslital in the east to the Col du Pillon in the west. May to end September is the best weather (but watch out for summer thunderstorms); huts manned in summer months

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #283937 in Books
• Brand: Cicerone
• Published on: 2008-06-16
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Turtleback
• 319 pages

About the Author
A lifelong passion for the countryside in general, and mountains in particular, drives Kev's desire to share his sense of wonder and delight in the natural world through his writing, guiding, photography and lecturing. Spending several months each year among various high mountain regions researching guidebooks, makes him The Man with the World's Best Job; a title he aims to keep by remaining active for another 100 years at least. Kev has enjoyed a fruitful partnership with Cicerone since the 1970s, producing walking and trekking guides to the Pyrenees, Alps and Himalaya, as well as walking guides for Kent, Sussex and the Cotswolds and he has several more books in the pipeline. A frequent contributor to outdoor magazines, he also writes and illustrates brochures for national tourist authorities and travel companies. When not away in the mountains, Kev lives with his wife in a small cottage among what he calls 'the Kentish Alps' with unrestricted walking country on the doorstep. But he also travels throughout Britain during the winter months to share his love of the places he writes about through a series of lectures. Check him out on www.kevreynolds.co.uk

Customer Reviews

Righting Wrongs!
I think I was too harsh in my previous review (below), so I'm giving it five stars now to average out to three and a half stars, which is what I should probably have given it. There is a lot of information in this book, and I did find some of it useful in the end. There certainly isn't enough detail in the maps as far as I'm concerned, but if you're a "serious" and experienced walker armed with detailed maps that probably won't bother you.

Hard work
The walk descriptions while brief are fine as they tend to stick to well established and signed routes. The addition of sufficiently detailed maps for all 115 walks would add significantly to the bulk of the book, and isn't necessary if you've got a decent sheet map, but be warned that in the absence of a sheet map, the book is barely adequate.

But what is really missing is that each of the ten regional chapters should have an overview map showing the walks for that chapter plotted and numbered (perhaps colour-coded by length) so that one can at a glance produce a shortlist of suitable walks.

As it is, the book is hard work unless you are already very familiar with the area - in which case you probably don't need the book.

Useful but not essential
This is a useful guidebook to walking in one of the most spectacular areas in the Alps (or indeed anywhere). The book has a wide range of walks, from short easy strolls to very strenuous all-day hikes. The timings allocated are roughly right in terms of walking time but it is wise to add extra time for lunch stops, photo stops, and so on. As the previous reviewer says, the actual walk descriptions are very brief. But in most cases this does not matter, since the paths are clearly marked and signposted. There are no maps in the book (except for some very rough sketches of the valleys) so you really need to have a detailed hiking map as well. So this book is not essential, but worth having for planning routes beforehand and as a souvenir (since it has some good photographs of some of the places).